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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23743741">Five Hundred Words: Holocron of Betrayal</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/brightephemera/pseuds/brightephemera'>brightephemera</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Knights of the Dawning Alliance [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Interview, Mother and Child, former Sith Warrior/Imperial Agent, former Sith Warrior/Malavai Quinn, mentioned Sith Warrior/Aric Jorgan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 15:08:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>500</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23743741</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/brightephemera/pseuds/brightephemera</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>I had this idea about Rylon turning eighteen four years after Umbara and deciding to celebrate his adulthood by creating a holocron of the Dawning Alliance – its history, its major figures, its culture. Ruth assumes Tebbith put him up to it but that’s not true. Rylon’s lasting interest is history, and here he can document something that’s already made galactic history.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Sith Warrior &amp; Male OC</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Knights of the Dawning Alliance [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1228328</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Five Hundred Words: Holocron of Betrayal</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rylon had set up a hovering spherical remote recorder. Now he sat, angled to face his mother.</p>
<p>Ruth understood why. She had been a founding member of the Alliance. And she had never forced Rylon into the center of it, where he might have seen this for himself.</p>
<p>Rylon started. “Tell me about Wynston. He was your boyfriend, right?”</p>
<p>Rumors, naturally. “For four days,” she said. “Then, friends for twenty years. Minus five. Sometimes I’ve pushed him away and sometimes he’s bolted, but…we always come back. After I was freed from stasis, the Force guided me back to him.”</p>
<p>Rylon’s eyes narrowed. “That’s unusual. Right?”</p>
<p>“Very. I shape the Force with my body, not my inner eye. It’s why I encouraged experts to tutor you. I lack your vision.”</p>
<p>“But you got led to Wynston.”</p>
<p>“More than once.” She laughed. “He’s my best friend. If you want to invade his privacy you’ll have to go to him.”</p>
<p>“But what did he do for the Alliance?”</p>
<p>“He kept us informed. Kept us running. Kept us focused. Kept us fed, housed, and hopeful. He’s competent, agreeable, and kind. We could never have survived without him.”</p>
<p>Rylon deactivated the remote.</p>
<p>“Something wrong?” said Ruth.</p>
<p>Rylon looked at his hands. He looked at Ruth. “If Wynston’s so great, then why did you go with my father?”</p>
<p>Ruth considered her words. “Because Wynston was a charming stranger who danced well, and your father was every dream I had for the Empire.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, but was he hopeful and agreeable and kind?”</p>
<p>Ruth had to think fast. “Wynston’s persona was ordinary. Your father’s shone like a firework. I was impressed.”</p>
<p>“The Force never led you to him.”</p>
<p>“It must have.”</p>
<p>“No. I mean after I was born. It never once said, Mom, Dad, let’s see each other again.”</p>
<p>Oh. “No,” she said. “It was never that simple.”</p>
<p>“Why? You could forgive him betraying you.”</p>
<p>“But he will never forgive my betraying him.”</p>
<p>That hung in silence for a minute.</p>
<p>“Mom?” creaked Rylon. “What does that mean?”</p>
<p>“It’s complicated. When you ask me these things…I betrayed him. Far more profoundly than he ever betrayed me.”</p>
<p>Rylon was rapt and anxious. “How?”</p>
<p>“I gave up on his Empire. His passion, his identity. I turned my loyalty to his hated enemies. I married a man he finds repugnant on every level. The Empire was mine for the taking and I threw it away in favor of things he will never love nor understand.” She smiled bleakly. “In contrast, all he did was break my heart.”</p>
<p>“Do you regret it?”</p>
<p>“Not a jot.” Ruth asked an unfair question. “Does he hate me very much?”</p>
<p>“He doesn’t like to talk about you. It’s all nice, though.”</p>
<p>“Yes,” she said distantly. He picked his battles, did Malavai Quinn. “I remember what that feels like.”</p>
<p>“I’m done recording,” Rylon said glumly.</p>
<p>“Was this useful?”</p>
<p>He shoved the remote into his satchel. “It explains a few things."</p>
<p>They didn’t talk again that day.</p>
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